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New world
New World is set during the 15th century exploration of North and South America by European explorers. The map includes 69 total regions but only 9 starting positions, called homelands. Four of the homelands are "native" (Inuit, Aztec, Comanche, Mapuche) and five are European (British, Spanish, Dutch, French, Portuguese). All players start on one of these homelands. (4 players or less start on multiple homelands.) Native homelands have more land and faster access to regions in their empire, but European homelands have an extra auto deploy on their landing zones. Note that European homelands do not connect to each other; they can only be assaulted through their landing zone. Bonuses are not traditional: +1 for every two regions in an empire. Homelands receive an auto-deploy +4 bonus; landing zones receive an auto-deploy +3 bonus. Features These are the official classification features from http://chipv.freehostia.com/. Discussion about their impact on gameplay in this map is in other sections of this guide. *Autodeploy (Troops are automatically placed on specific regions on the map.) *Bombardments (Some regions bombard instead of assaulting. After a player wins in a bombardment the defending region is replaced with a neutral troop and the player cannot advance.) *Collections (Unlike bonus zones (for example continents) these only require a specific amount of the designated regions to gain a bonus.) *Conquest Gameplay (Players only start with a small number of regions and must conquer most of the map away from neutral troops before reaching other players.) *Dead Space (There are regions that don't provide any sort of zone bonus.) *Naming Challenges (The region names are written in a complex way occasionally causing deployment mistakes.) *Ranged Attack (Some regions on the map are connected without touching.) *Starting Positions (This map contains start positions, meaning players will start with one or more of a preset group of regions.) General advice A few tips apply to most gameplay situations: *When you begin on a European homeland, immediately assault your landing zone. You gain an additional auto-deploy bonus on your landing zone when you have conquered and held it. *Region bonuses are significant on New World with every 2 regions held giving a +1 bonus. Don't overlook region bonuses in your pursuit of homeland and landing zone bonuses; leaving your opponent with lots of regions gives them a large bonus, even without the auto-deploy regions. *Native homelands require a balance. Quickly expanding into the single troop neutral regions can give a significant bonus. However, reducing troops too dramatically can prevent you from repelling an assault. *Save the neutral 4 and 6 troop regions as a buffer until you are ready to advance. *It is easy on this map to get your troops trapped within your own regions. Give yourself a path out from your homeland or landing zone. Consider letting an opponent hold a region to deny them an assault path to you. *New World is a connected map. Be aware of the North-South Atlantic and North-South Pacific assault paths. The connectivity means that there is almost always a path for an opponent to approach your regions. Keep your homelands reinforced. Settings Recommended *2-8 players, single *Flat Rate or No Spoils *Unlimited *No Fog or Fog of War Escalating When playing an escalating game, watch the ports especially, as they allow transit North to South. Central America (Aztec empire) and the Carribbean (Spanish empire) can serve as transits, but are easily blocked. The Inuit, French, and Spanish empires offer the closest thing to a dead end and tend to be the most easily defended, though there are no true dead ends on this map due to the connections. Note, too that although spoils play less of a role than on other maps, they are still significant. So sometimes Native empires are better off taking one region at a time in order to get a spoil each turn without compromising the heavier neutral army regions. Flat rate, nuclear and no spoils New World lends itself well to Flat Rate and No Spoils games. The large number of regions and easy access to bonus troops provides plenty of troops each turn, especially with Unlimited fortifications. Keep a watch over both kinds of bonuses: auto-deploy and region based. If one is inaccessible, go for the other. Don't attempt to hold auto-deploy regions at the expense of allowing an opponent to gain a significant troop bonus by holding many other regions. Nuclear Spoils affect the game little since bonuses are based on number of regions and not holding an entire bonus zone. Fog When playing a Fog of War game on New World, be cautious about taking territories. Be aware that on New World specifically *very little of the map is visible to you. *taking the landing zone from a European Homeland will reveal that you are indeed holding a European homeland as opponents can see your bonus in the next round. *taking multiple neutral regions will reveal that you are holding a Native homeland. *taking a single region in your first turn will reveal whether you are holding a Native or a European homeland based on whether you get the landing zone bonus or not. *crossing the neutral troop "boundaries" will almost certainly reveal your position. Taking regions to gain bonuses is important, but be wary of revealing your location before you are ready. Avoid reducing your troops, especially when holding Aztec or Comanche and they tend to be most vulnerable. Make the best educated guess you can about your opponent(s) likely location(s) and reinforce your position to match. Another way of looking at this advice for fog games: Never take more than a single region during the first turn. Watch how many regions your opponents take; you may be able to determine their position and strength based on what you know from your position. Chained and adjacent reinforcements One feature of this map that primarily comes into play with Adjacent games (and to some extent Chained games) is each European homeland's ability to bombard regions in their empire. With reinforcements limited to a single movement, allowing the auto-deploy bonus to build up on the homeland provides a natural defense, since an opponent will have to completely take the empire to prevent their troops being eliminated by bombardment from the homeland. 1v1 In a two player game, each player starts randomly with 4 of the 9 homelands. As with all 1v1 games, the key to winning is to tip the bonuses to your favor. Secure any landing zones immediately. As soon as possible (preferably turn 1 or 2), eliminate one of your opponent's source of bonus troops. This is often easiest by assaulting between Inuit, Comanche, or Aztec or between British/French or Portugese/Dutch. After taking one of their homelands, use the next turn to reinforce your position. A contrary strategy is to wait for an opponent to assault you as they attempt to follow the advice in the paragraph above. Counter by anticipating where they are most likely to assault and preserve troops for defense and a counter-assault. Team games One advantage the New World map has for team play is that bonuses can be gained for individual team members without the need for a single teammate to control an entire bonus zone ("empire" on this map). Early in the game, the focus should be on Native homelands, since their weaker border neutral regions make them more vulnerable to assault. Once European deployments have taken their landing zone, use your bonuses to reinforce Native homelands. Later in the game, focus on controlling the movement points North-South (Atlantic ports, Pacific ports, Spanish empire, and Aztec empire). Gaining control of either the entire north or south provides an advantage, but your primary focus should always be on denying opposing teams' bonuses. Typical team strategies and how they work on New World: *Deploy On One In the early game, all teammates should deploy all troops to a single player. That player then "rushes" an opponents homeland, often before that player has a chance to play (and gain their auto-deploy bonus). Consider assaulting a player other than the last to go if that player is in a better reinforced location, particularly the Spanish empire. Rushing Native homelands tends to be more effective, as there is less of a neutral troop barrier between homelands. *All Gang Up The strategy of all players attempting to assault a single opponent to eliminate them is less effective on this map because of the single deployment point each player has. For this strategy to be effective, several teammates need to be able to reach the single target opponent. Additional notes The most vulnerable homelands tend to be Inuit, Comanche, and Aztec. Be cautious about overextending in fog of war games if one of these Native homelands is your base. Manual deployment makes little difference on this map as there are few places to choose to deploy initial troops.